Moonlight Dance
by Novirp13
Summary: A month before her inauguration, Elsa decided to be a rebel and sneaked out of the castle. Deep within a forest and on a frozen lake, she saw a boy


**MOONLIGHT DANCE**

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**Disclaimer: **Rise of the Guardian belongs to Dreamworks. Frozen belongs to Disney

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**Genre(s): **Fluff

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**Warning(s): Typo** is my most loyal fan, **spelling mistakes** because English is not my mother language, Possibly **OOC**. **NO BETA,** so beware of grammar mistakes

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**Summary: **A month before her inauguration, Elsa decided to be a rebel and sneaked out of the castle. Deep within a forest and on a frozen lake, she saw a boy.

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A month before her inauguration, Elsa decided to be a rebel and sneaked out of the castle.

She'd been doing this since the death of her parents. Something a princess such as her should never do, at least not without a couple of guards to protect her from harm. But Elsa couldn't help it. Even if it was her choice to locked herself out from the outside world, the lavish bedroom of hers can be very suffocating sometimes. No noise, no happy sounds. Her sister's knocking didn't help to quench the loneliness. Instead, it became worse, Elsa felt like she was choking on her breath. So, just every once in a while, she wanted to feel _normal. _To breathe fresh air, where there was no wall to hinder her. To be outside and embrace the weather with her own skin.

She wanted to roam the castle without fear of hurting anyone. Be it the butlers, the maids, the guards, _Anna._

_Without fear of her own power.  
_

Tonight, Elsa chose to delve into her little adventure even further. Still wearing a blue pajama and boots (along with her ever-present gloves), she ventured into the depth of the North Forest. It was winter, and the air around was pleasantly comforting (_the cold never bothered her,_ after all). A small smile adorned her face whenever there was cloud coming out of her lips, signaling that the weather is going to get colder when she trekked up the mountain. Elsa may dread the day where she had to open the gate (officially), having to see the townsfolk after years and years of isolation. However, she loves Arendelle still. Not just because she's the princess-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-Queen-herself, but also because this is a peaceful country. A peaceful place. And tonight is a peaceful night.

Or it should be if she didn't hear a rustling of bushes somewhere up ahead.

Her relaxed posture immediately tensed, blue orbs roamed the scenery behind the trees. Who was that? A wild animal? In this time of the season, there shouldn't be any. Especially not in a snowy mountain. A person, then. Although that rustling sound sounded too…rowdy, for a mere human. It almost like a howling wind. Yet Elsa had been walking for the past hour. The wind she encountered was just a breeze, a soothing atmosphere that calmed her down. Is a blizzard coming?

When she arrived at the source of the voice, she couldn't help but let out a silent gasp.

There, deep within the forest and was seen dancing on top of a frozen lake, was a boy. Maybe around her age. Wearing a blue hoodie with snowflakes pattern (or was that real snow?) and tattered brown pants, coiling tight around his lanky legs. No shoes on sight (wasn't that lake freezing? He's going to get frostbite. And he was gliding on the surface too. How did he do that? Without an ice skate and all). His hair was white—whiter than Elsa's. Brighter than Elsa's. Almost glowing with ethereal light in this dark night of Arendelle—his orbs were blue—bluer than Elsa's—and skin was pale—paler than Elsa's. A tall stick with a curved point on the top part was held within his hand, in which he had been using that wood as a walking cane of sort. Twirling around it as he spread his arm wide*; kind of reminded her when Anna slid down a pillar from the second floor so she could reach the bottom floor more quickly.

That wasn't what stole her breath away, however.

It was the snow sprouting out of his palm. Where it created an image of animals—rabbit, dear, bird, butterfly—as it swirled around his figure merrily.

…what?

No. Elsa rubbed her eyes and pinched her cheek. No, she wasn't dreaming. The boy _really_ created the ice with his own hand. Not to mention how the lake under his foot became even more frozen every time he stepped, jumped, skipped on a particular location. Sometimes, it was just a thin layer of ice for him to lean his weight on. Sometimes, it created a graffiti of a cute flower. Other times, it created a life-like version of the said plant. Swerving and flowing. Until every corner of the circular lake, along with the nearest trees, covered with vines and shrubbery of flowers made of snow. It was beautiful.

She realized once again that, yes. Someone actually has power such as hers.

_(All this time, she thought she was_ alone)

_(A freak. A_ monster)

Before long, the boy stopped running around the staff and pointed it upward. Where suddenly, a small tornado rose, tearing the ice animal and flowers apart in exchange for a waterfall. Another magnificent scenery to see—as it wasn't just a gust of normal, clumps of ice. But an accumulative of different shapes of snowflakes, glittering under the moonlight—although the sudden light kind of blinded her momentarily, Elsa had to close her eyes to regain her bearing.

_So, this is where the sound of the wind came from._

His laugh echoed like a toll of a church, so melodic amidst the roaring gale. It became bigger and bigger. Colder and colder (_she felt cold. How could she feel cold?_) and Elsa almost tumbled to the ground if she didn't manage to snatch the lower branch of a tree she was hiding behind.

(However, she forgot that abrupt movement produced a slight sound. The rustling of the leaves snapped the boy's attention to her position almost immediately, blue orbs widened in tandem)

The wind slowly petered off. Before it finally stopped and Elsa could focus her gaze back to her surroundings. The man-made fountain was gone, leaving the pretty snowflakes to fly around aimlessly in the air. Not only that, the white-haired teenager was also nowhere to be seen. Like he vanished into nothing and everything she saw beforehand was just a hallucination.

But she checked already. And she was definitely, _surely_ awake. Elsa swiveled her head around. So, where—

"Hello there~"

"_KYAAA!"_

"_GAAAH!"_

THUMP

"Urgh…" Elsa groaned, wincing and messaging her lower back. The snow on the tree—courtesy of the boy's power—fell on top of her head and she shook it out of the way. As she opened her eyes for the third time, she blinked. There he was. Towering over her, was the snowy boy with staff, looking equally shocked at the princess' appearance. Both of their eyes met and a happy grin instantly blossomed on his pale complexion.

"Oh! You _can_ see me!" he crowed, pearly white teeth were peeking from behind his lips, "to think there existed an adult who can see me. I thought adults didn't believe 'us' anymore. Thank you for that~"

W-What was that supposed to mean?

"Name's Jack Frost. The Spirit of Winter, Guardian of Fun," he—Jack—introduced himself, while offering his open palm for her to grab. His skin was cold (once again, Elsa was baffled that she could finally experience this sensation), even his hoodie couldn't escape from the chilly temperature radiating from the…Spirit of Winter? Huh? He gazed at her form when Elsa fully stood up, "what's your name, my lady? And what are you doing here, in the middle of the night?"

"I'm Elsa. Princess of Arendelle," she answered, jaw opened in disbelief, "did…did you just say you're Jack Frost?"

He nodded, the smile never wavered.

Elsa knew Jack Frost. Or at least, heard the story of…him, apparently (the storybook said that he looked like a snowman. So, forgive her if she was a bit skeptical when this…teenager claimed to be _the _Jack Frost). He is the bringer of Winter around the globe. A fun individual who loves to nip other people's noses and toes, as he was a bit of a prankster. When their parents were still alive (when Elsa and Anna were still close. Like a tight-knitted sweater. Siblings and always together), they loved to tell them about The Guardian of the Children. Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, Easter Bunny. Elsa's favorite was Jack Frost. They both have ice power. They both loved playing with the snow. They just _love_ 'fun things' and she wished the spirit will show up sometimes soon, so they could play together.

(Then the accident happened and she forgot _everything_)

"But…you're just a myth…" Elsa spoke after a second of contemplation.

Jack shrugged, "oh, we're real alright. And you believed in me enough that you can actually see me," that was true. She saw him playing with his ability already. Creating a snow sculpture and summoning winds out of nowhere. Elsa couldn't deny his existence. Not with all of the evidence. Jack twirled his staff around his wrist before he stabbed it to the ground below. The princess belatedly realized that he was floating above the ground all this time (no normal human could do that) before he finally descended with a silent whump. The snow under his foot never sunk. It almost like he was standing on a hard floor and not on a soft mound of ice (Again. No normal human could do that), "you didn't answer my question, _princess._ Why are you here, out of your castle so late, without guards on sight?" Jack tilted his head to the side, staring at her from beneath the white bangs, "you are not running away from your home, right?"

"Oh, no! I'm just taking a leisure walk!" the platinum-blonde girl immediately squashed the suspicion. She didn't run. Couldn't run, even. Not when the inauguration day is slowly crawling close, "what about you? If you're…err…_really_ Jack Frost, are you here to do your job?"

"Sorta. Got distracted and decided to play a bit," he awkwardly chuckled, "The Man in the Moon said that there's someone with a power like me in Arendelle, so I'm checking that out as well," Elsa didn't mean to flinch at that, yet flinched she did. And Jack saw it as clear as day. His bright blue eyes glazed over momentarily. And somehow, she felt like he was seeing right into her _soul_ at that split second. There was a slight shock and his broad smile was back in place, "it was you, isn't it?"

Elsa flinched once more.

"I knew it! I could feel it from your 'center'. Cold, just like mine!" Jack leaned forward while using the staff to support most of his weight. There was a mischievous glint in his orbs, his boyish face was so close to Elsa, that she felt her face heated up (_it's been a while since people stand this close to me! Back up! Back up!_), "show me your power! I wanna see it! I wanna see it!"

"Urm..." the princess took a step back, letting the feel of the hard bark of the tree comfort her. Her heart started thudding, ramming onto her ribcages almost painfully. _It's always like this whenever someone spoke about her power. Her curse—_, "I…I can't…"

"Eeeh…why?"

"It's…it's dangerous," Elsa gulped, holding her hands close to the chest, "it hurt someone before. I…I don't want to hurt you either."

(_I don't want to see that eyes closed shut anymore_)

Jack scoffed, pouting, "lady. I'm a Spirit of Winter. You cannot hurt me with ice. It's my element," he leaned back. Sensing Elsa's distress, most likely, "it's that why you wear gloves? You've been hiding your power all this time?"

She nodded, playing with the hem of the said gloves and not looking at the innocent curiosity swimming in that gaze of his, "my late parents told me to…conceal it. Don't feel it. So, it won't control me any longer."

There was silence. And the Guardian of Fun said, "well, that's dumb."

Anger immediately bubbled within her throat. What? Did he just insinuate—. Before she could let her mouth run afoul, however, Jack continued, "okay. I mean no offense to your parents—mocking the dead is a sure-fire to get karma—but, seriously. That was a stupid advice!" the boy messed his already messy hair, he suddenly looked frustrated. He blinked twice, and focused his attention back to the platinum-blonde girl, "have you ever cook, princess?"

That was an abrupt change of topic in conversation, "yes." She did. Still do, actually. There were times when she craved to eat something in the middle of the night. Especially on the days when Anna tried to ambush her at mealtime, to sneak a peek at her older sibling. Elsa then completely avoided the dining room and let herself starve for half a day. Where she sneaked out of her bedroom as her sister sleep, went to the kitchen and tried to cook a meal for herself.

"How's your first attempt at it?"

"Bad," Elsa remembered her bacon and egg turned into charcoal that one time. The smoke woke the cook up and she felt guilty for that. He already worked a full day, she didn't want to disturb the nice man any more than that.

"What did you do after that? Did you stop cooking entirely?"

What's with these questions? "no. I just keep on practicing," it was a long way to do. And a lot of instruction from the cook. At first, he offered to make the midnight snack himself, but Elsa digress. She was lonely, all this time. Only books (and her cursed power) to accompany in the silent years of solitude. If cooking is a way for Elsa to keep her mind out of her _fate_, then she wanted to keep it going. Besides, it was satisfying to look at. Her accomplishment, that is. From charcoal to a decent meal. She even started on a baking lesson too.

Jack snapped his finger. Like he just solved a very difficult problem, "see? You already know!"

"Huh?"

"You don't want your power to control you? Then go practice with it," he clarified after Elsa blinked in confusion. The Spirit of Winter pull the crooked stick from the snow and hefted it on his shoulder, "when I just started this gig as a Guardian, I'm not good in using my power either if I don't have this staff with me. It wasn't where my power came from, though it's where I put all of my 'center', apparently. Give me a heck ton of trouble when that prick Pitch destroyed it. But look," he threw the staff away—it landed far from their location, near the center of the lake he was using as a playground just minutes ago—spread both of his hands to the side and let his ability out. Glittering snowflakes, snow animals and flowers appeared. Showering the night with a calming color of white and enveloping them in a comforting atmosphere, "I can do it just fine now. Sure, it was crude and wasn't as pretty as it was if I use my staff as a balancer. But at least, it won't get out of control. Don't want to bring an early winter to the world and all. North is going to kill me twice!"

"So, there you have it," Jack said, using the power of the wind to bring the staff into his grip without the need to walk away from their conversation, "concealing your power is not the right thing to do. Instead, it's going to go haywire one of these days. Rather than protecting your precious people, it only going to harm them even more than it should."

Elsa wilted, her throat clogged up. Jack was…so blunt. It almost like he was hammering a big icicle right through her heart, no sugar-coating at all.

But…there was truth in his statement. It was a normal knowledge that every living being knew. 'If you can't do it, keep practicing' (though you should also know your limit and drop it if there's a chance it'll harm you). Something so simple, yet so out of reach in her muddle mind. Elsa stared at her own hands, gulping.

"I'm…I'm afraid, though," she tested the water, trying to convey her feeling toward her power to the Guardian of Children, "just like you said, what if…it went out of control as I practice with it? Engulfing my country in early winter? I don't…I don't want to harm innocent citizens…"

"Then let's go have _fun_ with it!" Jack whooped, pulling the cloth away from Elsa's arm before she could retaliate. He grasped onto her now-uncovered palm and dragged her to the frozen lake, ignoring a weak protest coming from her mouth. Another swish of his staff and suddenly, every inch of the surface was covered in a thick layer of ice. Jack transformed the princess's boots into an ice skate and spun, before his grinning face was now facing the flustered Elsa _(again. it's been a while since people stand this close to her! Back up!)_, "try creating a small burst of ice. When you're comfortable enough, you can try forming it into a shape like I did. Start slow, don't rush it. I'm not gonna laugh at you if you failed. And I'm going to monitor the power output for now. So, just let loose. Be free. Your city will be okay~"

Is…Is that true? Elsa questioned silently as Jack guide her through this playful dance (he still didn't use any ice skate to run along the ring. Yes. _Definitely not human_). Can she really use her power? Without dreading for the day where it'll hurt other people along the wake? It almost like a dream come true. From an early age, Elsa knew she cannot get rid of this _curse_, she was born with it. That was why she settled for the second-best. Mainly concealing it so it won't lash out to any innocent bystander. She never considered this third option in all of her life.

_Maybe, though. Just maybe…_

The princess took a deep breath, let the Spirit of Winter twirled her body around and Elsa—

Elsa used her _power_.

"Nice!" Jack complimented, watching the swirling snowflakes flying around them both. It wasn't as grandiose as the boy's version was. And some part of it was just a clump of snow. Yet it made Elsa giddy. _She did it. She used her power. No victim falling. No fear emanating. _Jack used the wind to dispersed the ice and caught her figure, chilly hand grasping onto her waist, "you're doing fine, princess! Do it again! Do it again!"

As hours ticked by, more and more snow covered the silent mountain. Elsa now was confident enough to shape her ice into an animal like what Jack did beforehand, albeit a bit crude looking. Jack himself added the beautiful scenery with his own decoration. Pretty flowers were left on the surface of the ice ring, intricated vine coiling around the trees, gentle wind kissed their skin. And for the first time in her life of living in isolation and loneliness, Elsa was—

_Elsa was happy._

The moon shone brightly, showering them with its ethereal light. If the Guardians—who were busy at the other side of the continent—thought they heard the Man in the Moon chuckling fondly, well.

Today must be a good day, indeed.

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**(A/N): ***It should be an innocent play, but dang! I can't get the image out of my head now! That Jack is basically doing a _**pole dance**_ with that staff when I wrote 'Twirling around it as he spread his arm wide'. Dangit, adult mind and adult outlook! I hate you for ruining this fluff fanfic! :'D

Because of Jack's interference, Frozen 1 movie never happened. The air chilled to an uncomfortable degree instead of sending spikes toward Anna and the other civilian when she stole the gloves. When Hans shows his true face, they stop him using the good, old politic way.

Elsa still wore the gloves, but only at one of her arms. She treated it as a limiter, however. Not as a balancer. It'll take a while before she's comfortable enough to let her power completely loose. Like, say, at Frozen 2 movie :P

Speaking about that...I don't know how to influence Frozen 2 movie with this fic of mine, though. I kinda…don't like the ending of it? I just don't like how the movie separated Elsa and Anna once more, now that her older sister is a Spirit. I know they still meet with each other to maintain communication between the two worlds, but still…

Frozen 2 is fueling every Jelsa shipper muse, however. Now that they're both Guardian XD


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